About
1976, the Mego corp. signed a deal with the Japanese toy company Takara
that would forever change the way kids played with toys. They inked a
deal that would import one of Japan's most popular toy lines to the USA,
and by 1977 the Micronauts were born.

Mego
was an already strong competitor in the toy marketplace in the early 70's.
Their World's Greatest Super Hero line was a huge success, and they had
cornered the market in the 8" action figure genre. They were the
licensing kings, scooping up almost every character name and likeness
on both TV and in comics. But the time had come for them to have their
own "original" line of figures and vehicles, and Takara's Microman
line was just the ticket. The Microman concept was a simple yet ingenious
one: a line of toys that used a 5mm peg and hole interchangeability system.
This allowed any item from the line, whether it be figure or vehicle or
playset, to be fully interchangeable with each other and assembled any
way the child wanted. And it was a hit. Mego spent approximately 3.5 million
in advertising in 1978, and it paid off.

Micronauts
went on strong until about 1979, when the Mego corp. was on it's last
legs, until they finally went out of business in about 1980. In that 1979-80
retail year, the Micronauts saw their first original concepts introduced,
being the first characters not to be based on the original Microman
line. Who knows where the Micronauts would have gone from there following
these cool new ideas...but the end was only temporary.

The
links at top show the different series released year by year. The links
directly above are where you will find a few other extra added goodies
like printable versions of the instructions or stickers that came with
the toys. Have a look around and enjoy the universe that is really a "microverse"...the
Interchangeable World of the Micronauts.